Try to Master Multiple Disciplines
How important is the role of an MIS professional for any company?
The MIS function is to a company what a human heart is to a body. Information has to flow for an organisation's success.
The MIS official uses computer applications to make analogies, calculations and analysis. Is it desirable that s/he should be expert in management and IT both?
One needs to have a knowledge of both. But a functions person (who has the knowledge of the department he works in, such as sales, marketing or production) can be trained in technology and even a technology person can be trained in MIS functions. For any company, however, it's easier to train a functions person in technology.
Do MIS officials play an important role in strategic decision-making and planning?
See, the business has several functions from marketing to production to sales. Just because you know how the information flows does not equip you to handle every other thing. So, I would not say that they run the business but, yes, they enable the management to run it (through the information they disseminate).
As every industry has its own special sets of needs related to data requirement and processing. Can one professional move from one industry to another?
Each company has different requirements, but the fact is that the process of formatting the data does not vary in different companies. Content, however, changes from one company to another.
Does the data have to be analysed in a set pattern or can it be done differently?
There are certain standard processes which govern the information flow but one has to see how that information can be put together in a meaningful way. This requires knowledge of many disciplines (and not only mathematics, finance and IT).
Professionals should also understand psychology; to gauge how other people think, how they look at data, and what they understand from the information sent. There is a lot of scope beyond web technology and finance. You have to understand management.
Author: Vimal Chander Joshi (HT Horizons)
Date: 22nd October, 2010
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